I've written before about my conviction – disputed by many, possibly with good reason – that Van Halen are the second most important rock band ever, after only the Beatles. So I'm not going to spend time arguing for their influence.

Instead, in the week we get to hear their first new song with David Lee Roth since 1984 – the single Tattoo, currently streaming on their website – I simply want to ask: has any band ever made being a rock'n'roll star look more fun?

It was if Van Halen – and Diamond Dave in particular – devoted all their energy to the single task of trying to make their records and shows like distilled essence of Saturday night. It didn't stop with the records and shows: Van Halen interviews sometimes seemed a parody of a party. How, one wondered, could people spend so much time having a good time? It must have been awfullly hard work, giving the appearance of having a good time all the time.

Unchained, from the 1981 album Fair Warning, is typical Van Halen: staggeringly inventive hard rock, with Eddie van Halen performing that trick of switching from lead to rhythm guitar seamlessly, and a Roth lyric that makes no sense on the page, but on record celebrates mindlessness with a glorious lack of ambiguity. And, on the studio version – I've put a live version at the top, just for the fabulous giddiness of the band of the stage – there is the single moment that perhaps best encapsualtes the band, at 2:32. Producer Ted Templeman, evidently at his wit's end with Roth, is heard imploring: "C'mon Dave, give me a break." Roth builds the complaint into the song and vamps: "One break, coming up!" And back to the chorus. Oh, what a band!